Social welfare and health care sector
Trade Union JHL’s social welfare and health care star professionals do important work for example as personal assistants, in disability services, in child protection, as practical nurses, in mental health and substance abuse work, in nursing, in elderly care, and as sterile processing technicians.
Whichever of the social welfare and health care sector’s numerous occupational titles you may have, we welcome you to join JHL’s occupation-specific activities! You can be employed either by the public sector or a private service producer.
Help develop the work and develop yourself professionally in like-minded company!
JHL has set up an online discussion and meeting forum for star professionals of the social welfare and health care sector. This online platform is a convenient and easy way to keep in touch with people working in your sector.
The forum brings experts of the sector together to develop the work, future and ways of working both in their own jobs and in the whole wide social welfare and health care sector. Our forums are also a good platform for workplaces and JHL to get information from each other.
The forums offer a place for you to tell your thoughts on developing the work and get your voice heard as a professional.
Joining a forum does not bring you any obligations. The forums work in an informal and flexible manner, meaning that you can take part as much or as little as you want depending on your interests, and do it when it suits you.
Whether you wish to discuss the joys or challenges of your work, ask for peer support, share your experiences, ask for tips on how things are done elsewhere, or develop your occupational sector together with others, click the link to join. You can also just follow the discussions on the pages, if you prefer.
Participation does not require previous experience of union activities. It’s enough that you want to develop your work together with others!
If you want to ask more about the forums or other occupation-specific activities, send email to amky@jhl.fi. Don’t hesitate to contact us!
Useful information about JHL’s occupations in social welfare and health care sector
We also welcome you to follow the Facebook group of JHL's social welfare and health care sector professionals (in Finnish). There you will get information on your sector’s events and current affairs.
Care assistants support clients in welfare-related support services. These include for example meal, clothing care, bathing, cleaning, transport and accompanying services as well as services that promote social interaction.
Vocational education and training for care assistants
Care assistant education and training consists of selected qualification units that belong in the Vocational Qualification in Social and Health Care (Practical Nurse).
The vocational qualification in social and health care gets reformed in August 2024, and with that change, the qualification units for care assistants change as well.
If a person who has completed the care assistant education and training wishes to study further, they can complete for example the degree of a practical nurse alongside their work.
In future, the qualification requirements of care assistants consist of the following vocational qualification units:
- Encountering and guidance of client
- Promoting wellbeing and functional capacity
- Strengthening the client's ability to function.
This education and training totals 60 credit points. Care assistants who have completed their education and training according to the previous requirements do not need to study again.
Everyone who has completed the care assistant education and training can get the care assistant badge. If you want to have the badge, please contact your regional office.
JHL’s child protection professionals support families who are in danger of not being able to cope. JHL members work for example as child welfare social workers, social advisors, family workers and children’s home workers. Working in this sector requires solid occupational skills and training.
Children and young give their parents a huge amount of joy, but sometimes family life can get too exhausting, and problems can feel insurmountable. That is when people need the support, and child protection professionals can give that.
Nearly 3,000 JHL members work in child protection. They work for municipalities, joint municipal authorities and the state, and within private social services.
Education and training for child protection
Child protection work requires solid occupational skills and training. The professionals working in this sector can have the education of for example social service professional (Bachelor or Master of Social Services), practical nurse, social worker (Master of Social Sciences), community educator, psychiatric nurse, registered nurse, or youth and community instructor.
JHL is the union for child protection professionals
JHL is involved in concluding all the collective agreements that apply to child protection professionals. These include KVTES, the collective agreement for social welfare and health care personnel (SOTE agreement), the collective agreement for private social services sector, the collective agreement for government and AVAINTES.
JHL is actively involved in the operations of the Central Union of Child Welfare.
JHL’s branches for child protection professionals are Lastensuojelun ammattilaiset JHL ry 880 and Helsingin lastensuojelijat JHL ry (links to Finnish pages).
JHL voices the concerns of the sector
Your trade union JHL is active in many bodies and advisory boards of the social welfare sector. JHL highlights the current topics and shortcomings of child protection and challenges decision makers to engage in discussion.
The current concerns of the sector include insufficient personnel and occupational safety. And the operations of child protection units that provide demanding institutional care are in urgent need of development.
JHL’s goals in child protection
- Securing sufficient personnel resources
- The right of child protection clients to high-quality service
- Strengthening the competence of child protection professionals
- Strengthening non-institutional care services
- Regional plans for organising and developing child protection
- Child and family services must not get buried under health care in the health and social services reform.
Occupational links for child protection
- Child Welfare Act (in Finnish and Swedish) (Finlex)
- Act on Child Custody and Right of Access (in Finnish and Swedish) (Finlex)
- Act on the Status and Rights of Social Welfare Clients (in Finnish and Swedish) (Finlex)
- The Central Union of Child Welfare
- Save the Children Finland
- Pesäpuu
- See our Finnish page for more links in Finnish.
Follow also JHL’s social welfare and health care sector professionals on Facebook (in Finnish).
Many JHL members work in elderly care. They know what a major role good care plays in the daily lives of elderly people.
For elderly care to be successful, the environment needs to be safe and the employees’ duties need to match their skills. JHL looks after the terms and conditions of employment in this sector. JHL offers its members security, support and advice in various working life situations.
This sector has jobs in 24-hour care of the elderly, in home care and in services that support living at home, as well as in rehabilitation services for the elderly, in day centres and in guidance services.
Occupational titles include for example:
- home support worker
- home helper
- practical nurse
- assistant and auxiliary nurse
- social worker with the elderly
- activities leader
- registered nurse
- elderly care professional
- social service professional
Vocational education and training for elderly care
- Bachelor of Social Services and Health Care, Elderly Care
- Bachelor of Health Care, Nursing
- Vocational Qualification in Social and Health Care, Practical Nurse
- Specialist Vocational Qualification in Care for the Elderly
- Ministry of Education and Culture: vocational education and training
- Finnish National Agency for Education: vocational education and training
Minimum staffing level within elderly care
he minimum staffing level in enhanced (24-hour) assisted living and long-term institutional care for the elderly is stipulated in the law.
Only staff who do direct client work are counted towards the minimum staffing level. Indirect support service work is not counted towards the minimum staffing level.
These professionals participate in direct client work:
- registered nurses and public health nurses
- practical nurses and auxiliary nurses
- elderly care professionals
- home support workers
- social work instructors and educators
- persons with Bachelor’s degree in Social Services
- persons with a suitable further vocational qualification or specialist vocational qualification
- persons with a suitable older post-secondary level qualification
- physiotherapists and occupational therapists
- rehabilitation counsellors
- home helpers, nursing assistants and care assistants
- activities leaders and other similar employees who participate in maintaining the client’s social functional capacity
- managers and persons in charge of the units.
Also students who work in the unit under an employment contract, regardless of the form of education, participate in direct client work, if they have acquired through their studies sufficient skills considering the qualification requirements, the skills required in the legislation on professionals and the competence needs of the workplace.
The employer must take care that the unit has a sufficient number of social welfare and health care professionals for the needs and the number of the clients in every shift.
What is direct client work?
Direct client work involves responding to the client’s basic needs in their daily life. It can be:
- nursing and care
- tasks related to rehabilitation
- tasks that directly make these possible
- tasks that promote and maintain functional capacity and rehabilitation (assisting in daily activities, such as eating, washing up, getting dressed, moving about and going to the toilet)
- daily documentation, assessments of service needs, creating and updating the care and service plan.
Direct client work effectively covers supporting the client’s well-being:
- taking care of the comfort of the client’s living environment
- supporting exercise, outdoor activities and social relations
- maintaining social functional capacity and wellbeing, including working together with immediate family and close relatives and the guardian.
Direct client work also includes:
- serving food
- heating up individual meals for individual clients
- tidying up in unexpected situations
- otherwise taking care of the comfort of the client’s living environment
- activities outside the unit.
What is indirect client work?
- daily, weekly and monthly cleaning of the clients’ rooms and communal spaces
- laundry and facility maintenance
- preparing food and heating it up in large scale, for example when the evening shift is responsible for heating up the food for all the residents in the unit. In such case this would mainly be the responsibility of support staff, or if this duty belonged regularly in the work of the nursing staff, it would be specified in the job description and would not be counted towards the minimum staffing level.
- the managerial and administrative work of the manager and person in charge of the unit.
Due to different client structure, facilities and other circumstances in different units, minimum staffing level in support work in not stipulated in the law.
Definitions of direct and indirect client work (in Finnish and Swedish): The Act on Supporting the Functional Capacity of the Older Population and on Social and Health Care Services for Older Persons
Transition periods are determined in the law
- From 1 October 2020, the level must be at least 0.5 employees per client.
- From 1 January 2021, the level must be at least 0.55 employees per client.
- From 1 January 2022, the level must be at least 0.6 employees per client.
RAI assessment system
The RAI system consists of several different service needs assessment instruments that have been designed for different purposes and target groups. The system is intended for assessing the service needs of a client in elderly care or disability services and for creating care, rehabilitation and service plans. The person who receives that care can participate in the creation of their plan.
The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) must ensure that municipalities have the RAI assessment instruments at their disposal for free, and that training for the instruments is available as of 2023.
The abbreviation RAI is short for Resident Assessment Instrument.
Learn more about the RAI system on the website of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare.
Health care sector
Occupational titles of this sector include for example assistant and auxiliary nurse, dental assistant, massage therapist, chiropodist, physiotherapist's assistant, practical nurse, registered nurse, specialised nurse, assistant head nurse and head nurse.
Health care sector professionals work for wellbeing services counties, municipalities, joint municipal authorities and the state, as well as in the private sector. Their workplaces include health centres, hospitals, outpatient clinics and private clinics.
Training for the health sector
Educational degrees in this sector include for example Vocational Qualification in Social and Health Care, Practical Nurse, Competence Area of Nursing and Care; Bachelor of Health Care, Nursing; Bachelor of Health Care, Paramedics; and Bachelor of Health Care, Physiotherapist.
- Ministry of Education and Culture: vocational education and training
- Finnish National Agency for Education: vocational education and training
- Finnish National Agency for Education: eRequirements
Mental health sector
JHL’s mental health sector professionals work for wellbeing services counties, municipalities, joint municipal authorities, the state and private rehabilitation units, and some also work in the homes of mental health rehabilitees.
Occupational titles in this sector include for example psychiatric nurse, practical nurse, mental health nurse, nurse and mental health instructor.
The purpose of mental health work is to strengthen factors that protect mental health, and to remove and diminish factors that endanger it. The forms of mental health work include guidance and advice, psychosocial support tailored to individual and family needs, coordinating psychosocial support for individuals and communities in sudden and shocking crises, as well as other social services that support an individual’s mental health.
JHL is actively involved in the work of MIELI Mental Health Finland.
Vocational education and training for mental health work
- University of applied sciences degree: Bachelor of Health Care, Nursing
- Vocational Qualification in Social and Health Care, Practical Nurse, Competence Area of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Work
- Further Vocational Qualification in Mental Health and Intoxicant Abuse Welfare Work
- Specialist Vocational Qualification in Mental Health and Intoxicant Abuse Welfare Work
Ministry of Education and Culture: vocational education and training
Finnish National Agency for Education: vocational education and training
Substance abuse work
There is a long tradition of substance abuse work in Finland. The legislation concerning preventative substance abuse work entered into force in 2015.
Vocational secondary-level education and training for substance abuse work centres on mental health and substance abuse work. Substance abuse work is done in welfare services counties, municipalities or third sector service units. Occupational titles of substance abuse work include supervisor, substance abuse worker and outreach worker.
Education and training for the work
- Bachelor of Health Care, Nursing
- Bachelor of Social Services
- Vocational Qualification in Social and Health Care, Practical Nurse (Competence Area of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Work)
- Further Vocational Qualification in Mental Health and Intoxicant Abuse Welfare Work
- Specialist Vocational Qualification in Mental Health and Intoxicant Abuse Welfare Work
Occupational links
- Mental Health Act (in Finnish and Swedish (Finlex)
- Act on Organising Substance Abuse Prevention 523/ 2015 (in Finnish and Swedish) (Finlex)
- Ministry of Social Affairs and Health: Services for substance abusers
- Current Care Guideline for alcohol abuse (full text available in Finnish)
- See our Finnish page for more links in Finnish.
The content of the work in intellectual disability services and disability care is largely determined by what the client wants and needs. Working with a disabled person may for instance include going shopping, attending cultural and sports events, or various hobbies. So you may find a job that’s related to your interests in this sector.
The goal of disability sector professionals is to support people with disabilities in living with dignity. Intellectual disability services and the entire disability sector are guided by values, regulations and principles. They form the basis for how professionals work in accordance with professional ethics.
People in intellectual disability services and disability care work for wellbeing services counties, municipalities, joint municipal authorities or private sector service units. They work in places where disabled people of different ages live, work, study or use various services.
Occupational titles in disability care
- disability support worker
- instructor for persons with intellectual disabilities
- nurse
- practical nurse
- personal assistant
Vocational education and training for intellectual disability services
- Vocational Qualification in Social and Health Care, Practical Nurse (Competence Area of Care for the Disabled)
- Further Vocational Qualification in Intellectual Disability Services
- Specialist Vocational Qualification in Rehabilitation, Support and Guidance Services
- Bachelor’s degrees in Social Services (sosionomi), Elderly Care (geronomi) and Rehabilitation Counselling (kuntoutuksen ohjaaja)
JulkiSuosikki
Social welfare professionals are registered in the register of professionals maintained by the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health (Valvira).
Social welfare professionals include the protected occupational titles of practical nurse (lähihoitaja), home support worker (kodinhoitaja) and disability support worker (kehitysvammaistenhoitaja), as well as the licenced professions of social worker (sosiaalityöntekijä), social service professional (sosionomi), elderly care professional (geronomi) and rehabilitation counsellor (kuntoutuksen ohjaaja).
Remember to apply for the registration of your occupational title from Valvira as soon as you graduate. You can work in your profession without this registration only 30 days from your graduation.
Social Welfare Professionals Act 817/2015 (in Finnish and Swedish)
JHL is active
JHL has representation in the working life committee that deals with the Further Vocational Qualification in Intellectual Disability Services and the Specialist Vocational Qualification in Rehabilitation, Support and Guidance Services.
JHL has commented on the register of social welfare professionals, stating that the older qualification for disability support workers, vajaamielishoitaja, should be added in the list of protected titles as well.
JHL considers it important that intellectual disability services stay in the register of social welfare professionals and that the development work of vocational education and training for this sector continues also in the future.
JHL is involved in the Finnish Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
A personal assistant assists a severely disabled person at the person’s home and outside it. JHL is the trade union for personal assistants. We look after the terms and conditions of employment in this sector.
Assisting refers to the kinds of chores that the employer themself would do if their disability didn't prevent them. The law lists such daily activities as moving about, getting dressed, attending to personal hygiene, taking care of clothing and meals, keeping the home tidy, meeting friends, carrying out errands and assisting in caring for children.
The work of a personal assistant is not medical care, nursing or care work, or ordinary domestic work, but it may include assisting in such tasks.
The work of personal assistants is based on the Disability Services Act. It determines how a disabled person's services can be organised. There are three different models for how a municipality can organise personal assistance:
- organising the services as municipal operations
- providing a service voucher that the disabled person can use to pay for services that they purchase themself
- the employer model, in which the severely disabled person is the employer of the assistant.
The assisted person will get a reimbursement from the municipality for the costs incurred by hiring an assistant.
Guides and brochures
You can download our Guide for Personal Assistants using the link below:
See also Safety and well-being at work in work performed in another person’s home by the Centre for Occupational Safety.
Education and training for the work
Education and training for personal assistants is organised for example in vocational institutions. Personal assistant is a protected qualification title. This means that only people who have completed the specific training can tell that they are trained personal assistants.
However, it is possible to work as an assistant with other training background as well, because there are no formal qualification or training requirements for the work.
Join the group
Sterile processing work includes cleaning, disinfecting, drying, inspecting, packing and sterilising medical and health care instruments and equipment. The work is done in sterile services of hospitals or health centres, or in laboratories or dental care.
Sterile processing work requires care and attention to detail, and ability to work in an organised manner and manage technical equipment. It’s important to be able to work swiftly and in the hospital’s rhythm.
Hygiene requirements and precision are non-negotiable under all circumstances. Poorly sterilised instruments or incorrectly assembled equipment can have serious consequences.
Sterile processing technicians work for example in central sterile supply departments and laboratories; health centres and outpatient clinics; intensive care, dialysis, maternity, surgery and anaesthesia units of hospitals; and dental clinics.
Education and training
Vocational education and training for sterile processing is provided in an upper secondary qualification called Vocational Qualification in Equipment Maintenance.
Vocational education and training links
Finnish National Agency for Education: vocational education and training
National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health – Valvira – Front page
Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare – THL
Health Care Professionals Act 559/1994 (in Finnish and Swedish) – (Finlex website)
Social Welfare Professionals Act 817/2015 (in Finnish and Swedish) – (Finlex website)
See our Finnish page for more links in Finnish.